Guys, I am building a '35 Ford Street Rod. I have a '99 454 (Gen VI-4 bolt main) with a new Eagle 4340 crank, new Eagle "H" beam rods (w/L19 bolt upgrade), Edelbrock Alum. Heads and am considering putting a Roots type Blower on it. The problem is I do not have any experience with a Blower on the Street. I had a blown front engined small block Chevy Dragster about a million years ago , but I need some input about how they are to live with on the street. This will be an Automatic car (4L80E), I have a 31 spline, Moser 9" in it now. I have seen some of them on the street and Rod shows, and about half of them seemed to be a little finicky (high idle, surging, etc.). Can they idle properly? Are they truly "liveable? I am looking for all of the pro's and con's- Tell me about it! Thanks, Craig
This car has made 400 mile trips one way in a day. It runs 7s in the 1/8th mile. It is a bit of a handfull but it IS a hotrod His engine is similar to yours, he is using a TH350 however. It drives around town just fine and is more streetable than my 348/tripower car.
Power on demand, and it is loud. Not the best in the rain with that power/low weight and slicks. In other words, perfect. It really does drive nice, his is an 8-71. Works less and cooler as it pushes more air than a 6-71 at a given RPM.
the 55 to your left has had a blown bbc in it since 1996, the engine was in a 59 pickup for 6 years before that. The pic was taken in Missouri somewhere by Hot Rod magazine, on a 4500 mile trip...no problems....the engine has about 70k miles, got an overhaul (rings, bearings, valve job etc) at 50k miles. 1989 vintage LS-7 crate motor, with TRW blower pistons, mildly ported iron heads, hydraulic cam with about .540 lift and 230 @ .050, recently changed to hydraulic roller with same specs because the flat tappets wear out after 20k miles. Running a BDS 6-71 3% over making about 7 psi. The engine is mild, the holley 4777s are set up progressive, it surges at idle a little bit when the idle mixture is set rich enough that it runs ok when it's cold. I have 2.75 gears out back, and a switch pitch TH400. I'm guessing it's making 650-700 hp at the flywheel, judging by 1/4 mile mph and weight (116 mph and 4000 lbs). For a street blower motor, you can get a lot of torque and reasonble hp at low rpm, no need for high dollar high rpm bottom ends...just make sure the crank and pistons are strong. It take some planning to make it all work together...and most guys think RPM when they think blowers--I went the other way, building torque that I can use.
Hey Squirrel...I can't really tell from the pic, but does your blower/carbs/air cleaner stick up through the hood? If not, how much hood clearance do you have, and how'd you do it? With my blown Hemi project, I want to keep everything under the hood if I can.
the air filters and part of the carbs poke thru the hood. When I had the engine in the pickup, I grafted on a piece of a hood with a slight bubble, and it fit under the hood (using those ****py foam triangle air filters). It's a tall setup...
Old post, but I am in the process of getting all the pulleys lined up and all, does anybody have any picks of the pulley setups? I think I am going to have to run a electric pump, because it looks like I want have room for a belt.
Off topic but it's still BB Chevy.A friend has a boat with two supercharged 454's.The blowers are Weiand with 6 psi pulleys I believe,Merlin heads,fairly mild roller cams,usual boat water cooled cast headers,single Holley carb,worked over 850.On the dyno at Jensen Marine the engines made around 610 HP each at 5000 rpm.They have a nice lope at a 700 rpm idle.They are reliable.Well,reliable until a few cylinders decided to detonate and pistons go upside down,but a car engine can't be run at maximum power for 5 minutes...
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